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Tesla Space #93: Why Elon just dropped a billion into $TSLA
... and all you need to know about Tesla and Elon-related companies this week.
Welcome to the Tesla Space newsletter, our 93rd issue.
Okay, back to Tesla, here’s all that’s on the menu today:
Elon dropped a cool billion to $TSLA stock causing it to rally. We’ll tell you why this exact timing matters;
Tesla scores robotaxi test permit in Nevada;
Elon details how he spends his time on Tesla now;
Tesla discontinued the Long Range RWD Cybertruck;
Deep Dive into Tesla’s Megapack 3 and Megablock. Also, Tesla reached 1 million powerwalls installed.
We get a peek behind The Boring Company operations;
…and more, as always. Enjoy!
— Jaan
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X OF THE WEEK
I guess… daddy’s home?
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$TSLA
Elon Musk bought about $1 billion of Tesla stock last Friday, buying 2.57M $TSLA shares on the open market for the first time in over 5.5 years, according to a new SEC filing. This was also not part of a 10b5-1 trading plan. With this move, Elon increased his holding of Tesla by 0.62%.
the purchases shown, at market prices he bought in at
This moved the stock up by 6.73% by the time the market opened yesterday (closing +3.56%), and Elon’s purchases also led to over 7% raise on Friday.
$TSLA is up +18.24% in a week, and now at 1.29T market cap.
This is also, as far as I could find, the largest insider purchase, at least within a trading day but likely in total, in history. Elon also had some fun with it, even posted about the stock:
OTHER TESLA NEWS
Tesla opens Cybertruck orders for reservation holdes in UAE.
Tesla Giga Berlin will increase output as sales (in Europe and all the 30+ markets it supplies) are strong: “We currently have very good sales figures and have therefore revised our production plans for the Q3 and Q4 upwards,” says André Thierig, head of Giga Berlin.
Elon, after calls for added security detail, says: “Definitely need to enhance security”. Thanks to the latest proxy that I shared with you last week, we see that in the 14 months over January 2024 to February 2025, $3.3 million was spent for Elon’s security (~$235k/mo). To compare, Mark Zuckerberg’s security detail cost $27M for Meta for 2024.
Here is the full interview (23-minute video) on Bloomberg with Tesla’s Board Chair, Robyn Denholm, talking through Elon’s new pay package, succession plans, politics and more.
For Giga Texas deliveries, Tesla now offers customers the chance to ride the robotaxi to the factory.
Tesla has discontinued (or discontinued the selling of) the Cybertruck Long Range RWD in North America, which started at $69,990 before incentives.
UFC champion Jon Jones, who has nearly 10M of IG followers, posted a video of him using FSD (Supervised) in his Cybertruck. He wrote: "Man, the #CyberBeast is a straight up game changer! Bulletproof, heavy, ridiculously quick, and dead silent. Drives itself, too… no more traffic tickets for your boy."
Tesla’s new Model Y L is sold out for October in China, with new orders showing an estimated delivery date of November 2025 at the earliest.
Wes Morrill says that Cybertruck won’t get wireless charging due to vehicle being too high off the ground, as the air gap reduces efficiency.
Tesla’s first shipment of German-built Model Ys has arrived in Canada.
PS! If you enjoy our newsletters and want to support us, consider becoming a Tesla Space Insider — it will also level up your knowledge in all things Tesla, and we’ve got something big coming up.
FSD & ROBOTAXI & SOFTWARE
Tesla has been approved to start testing robotaxi service in Nevada!
Tesla Robotaxi has updated its service hours, now daily from 6 AM to 2 AM.
An interesting job posting from Tesla, which includes the tasks to "Map airport experience, additional fee & surcharges related to the rides for entire world.”
This is interesting. Robotaxi airport<>city is a clear use case where Tesla was just about to join SF and San Jose airport services, which Waymo is also doing.
FSD
Reports are claiming Tesla employees started receiving FSD v14 over the weekend (which usually means wider rollout over a few weeks to all). Elon has said the jump to V14 is as large as the V12 felt.
Software
Tesla has reduced Bluetooth audio latency (aka less lag) on AMD-based vehicles in software update 2025.32. This results in more responsive buttons and improves audio sync when watching videos on your device.
Teslas that are detecting when a driver gets drowsy (not that new) are now recommending the driver to activate FSD instead of just taking a break (new).
The “Start FSD from Park” feature, where, under your supervision, the car can shift out of park itself and start driving, is now also available for the PIN to Drive feature users as well.
For Intel processor Tesla owners, Tesla has rolled out the feature of seeing FSD visualizations while in reverse.
Tesla's Child Left Alone Detection feature is expanding and is now available on some Model Ys in the UK with software update 2025.32.6. If an unattended child is detected, the vehicle will flash the exterior indicator lights, play an alert tone, etc.
TESLA ENERGY & SUPERCHARGING
Tesla Energy launches Megablock and Megapack 3
Filled with puns as Tesla always is, it held an “Las Megas” event for debuting their new Megablock and Megapack 3 products. Here are the quick announcement video by Tesla, the full livestream of the event, and the recap video.
With Megablock, Tesla is targeting to commission 1GWh in 20 business days, equivalent to bringing power to 400,000 homes in less than month.
Here is all the info on the Megapack 3 & Megablock by Tesla:
“Megapack is our utility-scale energy storage platform, a key part of our mission to achieve sustainable abundance via sustainable energy.”
Tesla Megapack stores energy when production is high & discharges/releases it when the grid needs it – balancing renewables & supporting a reliable grid.
Megablock is our pre-engineered medium-voltage block:
Designed for 20 MWh AC, 25-year life & >10,000 cycles
91% round-trip efficiency at medium voltage, inclusive of auxiliary loadsAmbient operating temperature range, from -40 °C to 60 °C
23% faster to install with up to 40% lower construction costs
Site-level density of 248 MWh AC-per-acre, with all clearances needed for installation and service
Megablock uses Megapack 3, with:
Proven inverter & fire protection system
A drastically simplified thermal bay with 78% fewer connections
Latest cell technology: supply from the US, Southeast Asia & China
50 GWh per year manufacturing capacity
Deliveries start in the second half of 2026
Software & services from Tesla – demonstrated across >36 GWh global operating fleet.
Tesla’s new Megapack factory in Houston will be its most capable yet, producing the Megapack 3 in late 2026, with an annual production capacity of 50 GWh. 25% more than their other two Megapack factories.
Once fully ramped, Tesla’s three Megafactories will produce a combined 130 GWh of battery energy storage a year, enough to power ~50 million homes. That's nearly 4.2x more battery energy storage than Tesla deployed in all of 2024. Megapacks are now operating in over 65 countries.
Tesla's Autobidder (a real-time trading and control platform that provides value-based asset management and portfolio optimization) is now operating on over 600 projects across 4 GWh, with 10 additional GWh coming online soon. It is also launching in France in late 2025
There is also a new 1-minute high-quality video by Tesla of their Megafactory Shanghai production line.
The Megapack website is new as well, gives a lot better overview now.
Oh, and Tesla just reached 1 million Powerwalls installed this week!
Tesla says: “Reaching one million Powerwalls is just the start. By combining solar and storage, Tesla is helping households generate, store and use their own clean energy - day and night, in any weather, at lower cost. Every new Powerwall installed strengthens the world’s shift away from fossil fuels and builds a cleaner, more resilient energy future.”
PS! If you enjoy our newsletters and want to support us, consider becoming a Tesla Space Insider — it will also level up your knowledge in all things Tesla, and we’ve got something big coming up.
MUSKONOMY
SpaceX / Starlink
Starlink lowers the price of the Standard Kit to a record low of $89 in parts of the US. That is a 75% drop from its usual price ($349) and 85% less than a year ago ($599).
New customers can also lock in a reduced monthly service fee of $59 (from $120) for the first year.
🇱🇧 Lebanon has granted a licence for Starlink to provide services in the country.
SpaceX just completed its 300th Starlink mission
SpaceX is building a new 3,000 sq ft restaurant for $2M, called Chompy’s, at Starbase, Texas
The Boring Company
TBC posts:
“Prufrock-1 has emerged! This completes a 2.26 mile long Vegas Loop tunnel, connecting a property close to the Airport in the south to the Westgate Resort in the north. Along the way, there will be 8 new stations, including the Virgin Hotels and the Hughes Center.”
For a great other viewpoint, Felix saw it emerge right from his hotel window:
We also got a great video from TBC that shows the behind-the-scenes operations, in this 0:54 video clip. With the PS consoles and all. They write: “Prufrock-4 is our smartest, fastest and safest Tunnel Boring Machine. And the next iterations (5, 6, and 7) are already being built at The Boring Factory in Texas. Goal is Continuous Mining and Zero-People-in-Tunnel (ZPIT).”
Elon reposted it with "Grindr, but for rocks”
xAI / Grok
Elon says: “We are literally painting MACROHARD on the roof of the Colossus II supercompute cluster in Memphis big enough so you can read it from space.”
The Microsoft x Macrohard joke has been going on for a while now.
COMMUNITY CORNER
We’re done for today! We strive to be the most value-packed and concise Tesla-related newsletter out there. How did we do?
FEEDBACK: What do you think of today's issue?(we read every reply you leave after voting!) |
Looks like we aced it last week, with a 100% 👍️ rate. Here’s what some of you had to say.
C said:
“I love this. So many people are unaware of what Elon Musk will do in the future to change their lives completely. He will literally change the world. Next stop, Optimus.”
— That’s very true. I feel like other than Teslas on the streets, most of the public has no clear contact with what Elon has created so far. And this is soon to change given how many industries Tesla and Muskonomy has expanded to. The impact will be visible.
F said:
“The pay package was more info than I have been able to get anywhere else. I can now point to the Tesla supercharger for non-Tesla sites to the resort that i own a time share in and say “money maker here” id love to see more on Optimus in the future. When will the multi-pass come to the USA and I can clean my wallet of charge cards”
— Nice! I feel you on the multi-pass needs for the US, too. We shall see.
G said:
“You guys are GREAT! Please, please keep up the great work. Congratulations to Elon. What a...? Nobody ever like him before. Blessed to be living to experience such unrivaled brilliance.”
— Elon has his faults, as we all do. But the impact of just this single human is rather clear indeed.
Daniel said:
“To be honest with you I look forward to reading about the BCI. Every time I get an email that is what I look forward to reading about thank you for the update I look forward to new and more interesting adventures have a great day”
— Great, we’re hoping to incorporate more of that in the coming issues, hopefully with more news from Neuralink soon.
GW asked:
“If robotaxi was going to expand into Canada, where do you think it would expand to and how much regulatory stuff is there to get through/how long is this away? ”
— Good question. FSD rollout was quicker into Canada and the limiting factor is likely the regulation rather than the technology (FSD & robotaxi service app ecosystem) itself.
What I find interesting is that I’ve mapped out all the global partnerships around robotaxi deployments, and none of them are aimed at Canada. There’s Europe, Asia, US, but I can’t see Canada. Only one is Waabi, a Toronto-based AV startup.
That said, I presume some lobby work already goes on behind the curtains for robotaxis, and your best bet for the likely entry point is whatever city/region/province starts doing and allowing autonomous pilot projects etc.
Tesla currently follows the regulative areas that others have already “fought out”, such as with Waymo. Waymo is reportedly also already lobbying different provincial governments in Canda. But no clear answer, sorry.
Joyce said:
“Extensive, interesting coverage, appreciate. ”
— and we appreciate you!
See you next week for more,
— Jaan, Ted, and Sean.
PS, we’d like to thank all of our supporters on Patreon.
As a monthly supporter of the channel, you will receive our eternal gratitude and respect, plus a little shoutout at the end of every video and maybe even a few perks if you happen to be particularly generous.
James Russell | Rashid Durham |
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